EOSC, a viable option for multinational Corporate Legal Departments

Exclusive Offshore Service Centres offered by Offshore legal support service providers in India can be a viable alternative option for corporate legal departments, wishing to set up offshore offices and hire local attorneys to minimize costs and logistics. The attorney salary chart at www.payscale.com indicates that the average hourly rate of US corporate attorneys with 1- 4 years of experience is around $ 350. Even if the local attorneys can be hired at one-fourth or less, one need to add the seat cost and other overheads of atleast 50% of the payout, in the best scenario. Compare this with what the offshore legal support service providers offer in terms of Exclusive Offshore Service Centres. They charge in the range of $40 to $60 per seat for likewise profiles, depending on term of commitment and no overheads or other HR related logistics or liability. You get to interview each attorney you want to work for you at your EOSC, just like if you were to hire local attorneys for your local offices. You have the option of getting the EOSC co-ordinated and supervised either in person (by your local office) or remotely. You may even opt to depute one or more of your own Attorneys, depending on the size of the EOSC. An EOSC is a marked off, self sufficient work bay, of which the systems, the processes and the people are devoted to the exclusive client for whom it has been set up. The Attorneys of your EOSC would act, as if seconded to your Department. Apart from cost advantage, EOSC offers familiar, scalable, cohesive and integrated legal team for both the attorneys and the client. Author : Thomas PJ, President, Corplo Legal Outsourcing Private Limited, New Delhi, India. He can be contacted at Thomas.pj@corplo.com